Analytical Tools in an Industrial Enterprise

Manufacturing companies operate on data from production, operation and trade. The strategy of creating and collecting data at the centre of production processes has significantly improved in recent years. Manufacturers are now collecting and storing vast amounts of data from their manufacturing facilities, both online and offline, from multiple geographic locations and with a growing number of separate data repositories. The design of workplaces and products continues to migrate from paper to the computer, where analysis accuracy, visualization, and collaboration utilities allow designs to be realized much faster and better than ever before. As the pace of this development accelerates with the increased capabilities of the software design tools, less time is spent on physical prototyping, allowing for shortened time-to-market for new products. Ergonomists, who in the past used the physical prototypes to perform human factors analyses, are now challenged to move the analysis into the virtual domain using new tools and methods. Usability, maintainability, physical ergonomic assessments, psychological perception, and procedural training are some of the human factors issues that might benefit from analysis prior to the first physical incarnation of the design.